Children's Toothbrushing Frequency: The Influence of Parents' Rationale for Brushing, Habits and Family Routines

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the relationship between parental and family factors and children's toothbrushing frequency at different times of day. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of predominantly low-socio-economic status parents of children aged 3-6 years (n = 296) in South Wales, UK. Data were collected on the child's weekly toothbrushing frequency (morning and evening), the parents' rationale for brushing their child's teeth in the morning and evening, the strength of a parent's habit for brushing a child's teeth in the morning and evening, and the extent to which the family's daily routines were stable from day to day. Socio-demographic details were also collected. Results: Reported weekly brushing frequency was significantly (p < 0.001) higher in the morning (mean ± SD: 6.57 ± 1.37) than the evening (mean ± SD: 5.99 ± 2.15). Parents had significantly (p < 0.001) more interest in the cosmetic benefits of toothbrushing in the morning compared to the evening. Multivariate analysis showed that an increasing focus on the cosmetic benefits of toothbrushing was associated with significantly (p < 0.05) less weekly brushing in the evening. The extent to which brushing a child's teeth was ‘habitual' was significantly (p < 0.001) associated with weekly toothbrushing frequency at both times of day. Conclusions: Parents' rationale for brushing their children's teeth can vary at both an individual level and at different times of day. Understanding these variations is important in designing interventions to improve brushing frequency for at-risk children. The results also demonstrate habituation as being an important factor in understanding toothbrushing frequency. Further research is required to understand the mechanisms involved in habit formation and maintenance with children's oral hygiene behaviour.

Socioeconomic and behavioral determinants of tooth brushing frequency: results from the representative French 2010 HBSC cross‐sectional study

“…Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescents' health have been documented previously . Family environment has been found to be strongly associated with children's tooth brushing . However, in our study, the family variable was not kept in the final logistical regression model.…”

Parental supervision for their children's toothbrushing: Mediating effects of planning, self‐efficacy, and action control

“…This highlights the importance of these more modifiable volitional factors in future intervention programs and suggests past actions and habitual routines may be less stable across time. For example, parents may have different competing demands at different points in time that may potentially affect their ability to supervise their children's oral hygiene practices more or less (Trubey, Moore, & Chestnutt, ; Trubey et al ., ). It is important, therefore, for future interventions to improve parental behaviours for childhood oral hygiene to include elements of self‐efficacy, planning, and action control and link these with matched behaviour change techniques that have been shown to change the predictors, thus leading to interventions that may be optimally effective in changing behaviour (Kok et al ., ).…”

“…The lack of effective results and cross‐over effect may be because young children's health behaviour is primarily directed by their parents, as children are unlikely to have the required capability and control over their own behaviours in the home (Cooper et al ., ; Hamilton, Cleary, White, & Hawkes, ). Considering dental decay is preventable (WHO, ) and children's heath is influenced by their parents behaviour (Hamilton, Spinks, White, Kavanagh, & Walsh, ; Hamilton, Cleary, et al ., ; Hamilton, Kirkpatrick, Rebar, White, & Hagger, 2017; Thomson, White, & Hamilton, ), including toothbrushing behaviours (Marshman et al ., ; Trubey, Moore, & Chestnutt, ), research is needed into the psychological processes that guide parents’ behaviour for their young children's toothbrushing behaviours to combat oral ill health in the early years (see Gray‐Burrows, Owen, & Day, ; Gray‐Burrows et al ., ). Indeed, a recent systematic review suggested a need for further prospective and experimental studies examining a range of psychological factors in relation to oral health behaviours (Scheerman et al ., ).…”

Toothbrushing behavior in children – an observational study of toothbrushing performance in 12 year olds

“…Future analyses should explore which factors might contribute to these differences. Family conditions and social variables are key candidates for such analyses [45, 46].…”